/ I fi 




A 



MEMOIR 



OF 



George Chambers, 



OF 



CHAMBERSBURG, 



FATE 



VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE SOCIETY 



j: Mcdowell sharpe. 

AND READ BY HIM BEFORE THE 

HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA, 
FEBRUARY 17TH, 1873, 



PHILADELPHIA: 
HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

1873- 



MEMOIR 



OF 



George Chambers. 



A 



MEMOIR 



OF 



George Chambers, 



OF 

CHAMBERSBURG, 

LATE 

VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE SOCIETY. 

BY 

j. Mcdowell sharpe. 

AND READ BY HIM BEFORE THE 

HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA, 

FEBRUARY 17TH, 1873, 



PHILADELPHIA: 

HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

1873. 



5? 






A MEMOIR 

OF 

GEORGE CHAMBERS, LL.D. 



ABOUT the year seventeen hundred and twenty-six 
four brothers, determined to push their fortunes 
in the New World, arrived in the city of Philadelphia, 
as emigrants from the county of Antrim, in Ireland. 
Among those brothers was Benjamin Chambers, the 
grandfather of the subject of our sketch — then a youth 
of seventeen years. He first settled, with his brothers, on 
a large tract of land which they purchased from the Pro- 
prietaries of the Province, on the borders of the Susque- 
hanna, near Fishing Creek. In the year 1 730, prompted 
by that spirit of exploration and love of adventure 
which so eminently characterized the early pioneers, he 
crossed to the western bank of the Susquehanna, and, 
traversing the untrodden Cumberland Valley, reached 
the confluence of the Falling Spring with the Conoco- 
cheague Creek. The excellent water-power furnished by 
these streams, the fertility of the soil, and the beautiful 
and picturesque scenery, arrested his attention and de- 
termined his choice of this spot as his permanent home. 

Having procured a title to as much land as he desired, 
he proceeded to erect a log house of hewed timbers, 

7 



8 A MEMOIR OF GEORGE CHAMBERS, LL.D. 

roofed with lapped cedar shingles, fastened with nails — 
an unusual architectural distinction for that day. This 
humble dwelling was the foundation of Chambersburg, 
and this energetic and adventurous youth its first white 
settler. A few years afterwards he erected a grist and 
saw mill, which helped greatly to quicken the settlement 
of the adjacent lands and to develop their resources. 

During the controversy between the Penns and Lord 
Baltimore, relative to the boundaries of their respective 
provinces, Mr. Chambers went to England to assist by his 
testimony in determining the issue involved. His evidence 
was of great value to the Penns, and had a decisive influ- 
ence upon the settlement of the controversy. During his 
absence on that business, he revisited his native place 
and induced many persons to accompany him on his 
return, generously defraying the expenses of those who 
were poor and without means. His settlement steadily 
grew in numbers and in wealth. Although surrounded 
by Indians, his tact, upright dealing and rigid justice se- 
cured and commanded their respect and friendship. He 
spoke the language of the Delawares with fluency, and 
was on terms of intimacy with their chief men. A sacred 
truce was long maintained between them, and the toma- 
hawk was buried deep. The influence of this just and 
pacific policy towards the aborigines was of necessity 
confined within a very narrow sphere. Untoward and 
sinister aeencies were active elsewhere. French ambi- 
tion, assisted by the baleful influence of French gold, poi- 
soned the blood of the red men and fired their hearts 
with an intense and savage desire for vengeance. A 
war of extermination was proclaimed and waged against 
the English. 

The life of the isolated and scattered settlements of the 
Kittatinny country was about to go out in blood. The 



A MEMOIR OF GEORGE CHAMBERS, LL. D. 9 

dark war-cloud came rolling in upon the infant settle- 
ment at Chambersburg. It was a time when the stoutest 
heart might well quail and the manly cheek might well 
blanch, for friend and foe were alike victims upon the 
altar of Moloch. 

On the 3d of July, 1754, Colonel Washington was com- 
pelled to capitulate to a superior force of allied French 
and Indians, at Fort Necessity. Under the weight of this 
dire calamity the frontier settlements invoked the assist- 
ance and protection of the Provincial Government. The 
following petition will serve to illustrate the earnestness 
of the appeal and the imminency of the peril. 

To the Honorable James Hamilton, Esq., Lieutenant-Governor and 
Commander-in-Chief of the Province of Pennsylvania and 
Counties of New Castle, Kent, and Sussex, in Delaware. 

The address of the subscribers, inhabitants of the County of 
Cumberland, humbly sheweth : 

That we are now in the most imminent danger by a powerful 
army of cruel, merciless, and inhuman enemies, by whom our 
lives, liberties, and estates, and all that tends to promote our wel- 
fare, are in the utmost danger of dreadful destruction, and this 
lamentable truth is most evident from the late defeat of the Vir- 
ginia forces ; and now, as we are under your Honor's protection, 
we would beg your immediate notice, we living upon the fron- 
tiers of the Province, and our enemies so close upqn us, nothing 
doubting but that these considerations, will affect your Honor; 
and as you have our welfare at heart, that you defer nothing that 
may tend to hasten our relief, etc. 

This petition was signed by Benjamin Chambers and 
seventy-four others, and dated Cumberland, July 15th, 

1754. 

The intelligence of the bloody drama which closed the 
march of Braddock's doomed army on the 9th of July, 
1755, completed the dismay of the unprotected settle- 



IO A MEMOIR OF GEORGE CHAMBERS, LL.D. 

ments. Many of the people fled, with what effects they 
could carry, to Shippensburg and Carlisle. 

Mr. Chambers, ever upon the alert to save his infant 
colony from the destruction which seemed to be close at 
hand, wrote and forwarded the following letter : 

Falling Spring, Sabbath Morning, 
Nov. 2d, 1755. 

To the Inhabitants of the Lozver Part of the County of Cumberland. 
Gentlemen : — If you intend to go to the assistance of your 
neighbors, you need not wait longer for the certainty of the news. 
The Great Cove is destroyed. James Campbell left his company 
last night and went to the fort at Mr. Steel's meeting-house, and 
there saw some of the inhabitants of the Great Cove, who gave 
this account : that, as they came over the hill, they saw their 
houses in flames. The messenger says that there are but one hun- 
dred, and that they are divided into two parts; the one part to go 
against the Cove, and the other against the Conolloways; and 
there are two French among them. They are Delawares and 
Shawneese. The part that came against the Cove are under the 
command of Shingos, the Delaware king. The people of the 
Cove that came off saw several men lying dead ; they heard the 
murder-shout, and the firing of guns, and saw the Indians going 
into their houses before they left sight of the Cove. I have sent 
express to Marsh Creek at the same time I send this; so I ex- 
pect there will be a good company there this day ; and as there are 
but one hundred of the enemy, I think it is in our power, if God 
permit, to put them to flight, if you turn out well from your 
parts. I understand that the West Settlement is designed to go, 
if they can get any assistance, to repel them. All in haste, from 

Your humble servant, 

Benjamin Chambers. 

These urgent appeals remained unanswered. The Pro- 
vincial Government was too indifferent to heed these calls 
for help, and too weak to furnish arms and men for the 
protection of the frontiers. There was no alternative, 



A MEMOIR OF GEORGE CHAMBERS, LL.D. II 

but to abandon the settlement, or to remain, stand for its 
defence, and share its fate. To abandon it, was to insure 
its annihilation. To remain, and attempt to save it, was 
to imperil life. A stout heart and a cool head were 
needed, or all would be lost. But the path of duty is 
never long doubtful to the true man. The hour of trial 
is the crucible that refines human nature and lifts the soul 
above the dross of earth. 

Mr. Chambers resolved to stand by his feeble settle- 
ment, to rescue it from the peril that threatened it, or to 
perish with it. He erected a fort at his own expense, 
and armed it with two cannon of four-pound calibre and 
with such other offensive weapons as he could procure. 
He tempered this show of force, upon all proper occa- 
sions, with a friendly and conciliatory policy towards the 
Indians. It is true that his fort was not impregnable, and 
could not have withstood a fierce assault or held out 
against the rigors of a siege. But the unfaltering courage 
and iron will of its commandant made it strong enough 
to baffle savage vengeance, and to guard through long, 
weary years of desultory warfare the town which his en- 
ergy and enterprise had founded. 

Prior to this, about the year 1 748, Mr. Chambers had 
received the commission of colonel from the Provincial 
Government. 

It would be most likely that he who had left his native 
land and established his home upon the frontiers of civil- 
ization ; whose destiny it was to battle with the dangers 
of the wilderness ; to toil, and struggle, and suffer ; 
whose task it was to found and nurture into strength a 
prosperous town ; whose clear head, wise counsels, and 
stern justice, managed and adjudged its affairs in peace, 
and whose unflinching bravery and unyielding fortitude 
defended it in war, would be a patriotic citizen, a good 



12 A MEMOIR OF GEORGE CHAMBERS, LL.D. 

neighbor, a just man, a firm friend, a devoted father, and 
a devout Christian. Mr. Chambers possessed all these 
qualities in an eminent degree. In private life he was 
respected and esteemed for the purity of his character, 
the kindliness of his disposition, the soundness of his judg- 
ment, and for his austere love of justice. He was the 
recognized counsellor of the community in which he 
lived, and for many years a magistrate — the arbiter of 
all disputes, from whose judgment none cared to appeal. 

The original settlers of Chambersburg and vicinity 
were almost exclusively Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, de- 
vout believers in the Westminster Confession, and 
imbued with the deepest reverence for the Sabbath and 
the sanctuary. 

Mr. Chambers himself was a disciple of this creed, and 
built his settlement upon the solid rock of the Calvinistic 
doctrine and faith. Having a profound conviction that 
his settlement could only be stimulated into a sturdy and 
healthy growth by means of the ameliorating and enlight- 
ening influences of education and religion, he selected, at 
an early day, the most eligible and romantic site in the 
town, and by a deed dated in 1768 donated it to the reli- 
gious society, " then and thereafter adhering to the West- 
minster Confession of Faith, and the mode of govern- 
ment therein contained, and for the purpose of a house 
of worship, session and school-houses, and cemetery." 

He died on the 1 7th of February, 1 788, at the age of 
eighty years. 

He was married twice. His first wife was a daughter 
of Captain Robert Patterson, of Lancaster. He married 
her in 1745, and she gave birth to his son James, who 
rose to distinction in the Revolutionary army. 

This son, at the first outbreak of hostilities, warmly 
espoused the patriot cause. In June, 1 775, he recruited a 



A MEMOIR OF GEORGE CHAMBERS, LL.D. 13 

company of infantry, was elected its captain, and marched 
to the defence of Boston. For gallant and meritorious 
conduct in the engagements around that city, he was pro- 
moted by the Continental Congress, on the 7th of March, 
1776, to the lieutenant - colonelcy of "Hand's Rifle 
Battalion in the army at Cambridge." He was commis- 
sioned colonel of the First Regiment of the Pennsylvania 
Line, on the 26th day of 'September, 1776. He fought in 
the battle of Long Island, served through the arduous 
campaign in New Jersey, participated in the engagements 
at Brandywine and Germantown, and suffered the priva- 
tions and horrors of the winter at Valley Forge. In the 
year 1781 he availed himself of the provisions of an Act 
of Congress reducing the Pennsylvania Line to six regi- 
ments, and retired from the army, after six years of faith- 
ful service, conspicuous for gallantry and the highest ex- 
hibition of soldierly qualities. He commanded a brigade 
in 1794, in the expedition for the suppression of the 
Whiskey Insurrection. He also received a brigadier- 
general's commission in the Pennsylvania quota of militia 
called for by Congress in 1 798, in anticipation of difficul- 
ties with France. 

His worth in civil life was recognized by the universal 
respect and esteem of the community in which he lived. 
For several years he was an Associate Judge of the Court 
of Common Pleas of Franklin County. A member of the 
Masonic order, he founded the Chambersburg Lodge, and 
was its Master until he resigned, in 1804. He was also 
a member of the Society of the Cincinnati. After the es- 
tablishment of peace in 1783, he built a forge on the site 
of the present village of Loudon, where he died on the 
25th of April, 1805. 

Colonel Benjamin Chambers married his second wife 
in 1745. Her name was Miss Jane Williams, the daugh- 



14 A MEMOIR OF GEORGE CHAMBERS, LL.D. 

ter of a Presbyterian clergyman, of the Virginia Colony, 
from Wales. 

Benjamin Chambers, born in the year 1755, the father 
of George Chambers, the subject of our sketch, was a 
son of this second marriage. When a youth of but 
twenty years, he enlisted in the company of his brother, 
Captain James Chambers, and marched with it to Boston. 
Soon after he joined the army he was commissioned a 
captain, and in that rank fought at the battles of Long 
Island, Brandywine, and Germantown, with credit and 
gallantry. During the retreat of the army from Long 
Island, the Pennsylvania troops were assigned to the dis- 
tinguished but hazardous honor of covering the move- 
ment. While assisting in this delicate and perilous ma- 
noeuvre, Captain Chambers had the great good-fortune to 
arrest the attention of General Washington, win his 
commendation, and receive from him, as a signal token 
of his approbation, a handsome pair of silver-mounted 
pistols ; which have always been treasured as a precious 
heir-loom in the family, having recently been bequeathed 
to Benjamin Chambers Bryan, a great-grandson of the 
original donee. 

But the diseases of camp and the rigors of military life 
compelled Captain Chambers to retire from the army ; 
just at what period of the struggle is not definitely 
known. Although no longer engaged in regular military 
service, his skill and experience and great personal cour- 
age made him the captain and leader in many expeditions 
against the Indians, whose savage and bloody forays upon 
the settlements of Bedford and Huntingdon counties 
were constantly creating great consternation and alarm. 

At the conclusion of the treaty of peace with England 
he became extensively engaged in the manufacture of 
iron, and was the first to make iron castings in the 
county. 



A MEMOIR OF GEORGE CHAMBERS, LL. D. 15 

Influenced by the same enlightened liberality which char- 
acterized his father, he donated, in the year 1 796, two lots 
of ground in Chambersburg as a site for an academy. 
A charter was procured in 1797, and shortly afterwards 
a suitable building was erected, and a select school 
organized and opened under the tuition of James Ross, 
whose Latin Grammar for many years maintained its 
distinguished position, without a rival, in the colleges 
and seminaries of our land. 

Captain Chambers left upon record, among the last 
business acts of his life, his solemn testimony to the im- 
portance and value of education, by earnestly enjoining 
upon his executors, in his will, that they should have all 
his minor children liberally educated. This betokened a 
zeal for learning that was certainly very rare in that day. 
He died in 181 3, crowned with the esteem, respect, and 
love of the community, for whose welfare and prosperity 
he had taxed his best energies, and to whose development 
he had devoted the labor of a lifetime. 

George Chambers, his oldest son, was born in Cham- 
bersburg, on the 24th day of February, a. d. i 786. It was 
not unlikely that such a father would put George to his 
books while very young. This seems to have been so. 
He must have been tauo-ht to read and write, and have 
acquired the other rudiments of a common English 
education, at a very early age ; for when he was but ten 
he began the study of Latin and Greek in the classical 
school of James Ross. He subsequently entered the 
Chambersburg Academy and became the pupil of Rev. 
David Denny, an eloquent, learned, and much revered 
Presbyterian clergyman. He was ambitious and studi- 
ous, and had made such progress in the ancient lan- 
guages and mathematics that in October, 1802, he was 
able to pass from the Academy into the Junior Class at 



l6 A MEMOIR OF GEORGE CHAMBERS, LL.D. 

Princeton College. He Graduated f r0 m that institution 
in 1804, with high honor, in a class of forty-five, among 
whom were Thomas Hartley Crawford, Theodore Fre- 
linghuysen, Joseph R. Ingersoll, Samuel L. Southard, and 
others, who rose to distinguished eminence at the bar, in 
the pulpit, and in the councils of the nation. 

He chose the law as his profession, and entered upon 
its study with William M. Brown, Esq., in Chambersburg. 
Having spent a year with him, he became a student nn 
the office of Judge Duncan, in Carlisle, then in the zenith 
of his great fame. Having passed through the cus- 
tomary curriculum, he was admitted to the bar and sworn 
as a counsellor in the courts of Cumberland County, in 
the year 1807. 

Shortly afterward, he returned to Chambersburg and 
commenced the practice of his profession. When he 
entered the arena, he found the bar crowded with emi- 
nent and learned lawyers. Duncan, Tod, Riddle, and the 
elder Watts practiced there and monopolized the busi- 
ness. With such professional athletes, already crowned 
with the laurels of the profession, and clad in armor that 
had been tempered and polished by the lucubrations of 
more than twenty years, it seemed a hard, indeed an al- 
most impossible, task for a young and inexperienced man 
to compete. 

Mr. Chambers, however, courted notoriety by no ad- 
ventitious aids. Indeed, he thought so little of all the 
usual methods of inviting public attention, that it is re- 
lated of him that he dispensed with " the shingle" that 
ornament of the office-shutter which the newly-fledged 
lawyer is so apt to regard as an indispensable beacon to 
guide the footsteps of anxious clients. Nor did he ad- 
vertise his professional pretensions in either card or 
newspaper. He was quite content to recognize in the 



A MEMOIR OF GEORGE CHAMBERS, LL.D. \J 

law a jealous mistress, who would be satisfied with noth- 
ing- less than the undivided homage of heart and mind. 

His professional career was not distinguished by rapid 
success at first. Like almost all who have attained the 
highest honors at the bar, his novitiate was severe. He 
found the first steps of his journey towards eminence 
beset with difficulties and full of discouragements. 

He who can with manly fortitude meet the fiery ordeal, 
and come out of it without the smell of fire upon his gar- 
ments, has earned a title to distinction. Men are not 
born lawyers. Admission to the bar is simply the intro- 
duction of the tyro into the vestibule of jurisprudence — 
a fact which unfortunately too many young lawyers en- 
tirely overlook. 

But Mr. Chambers was not unmindful of these truths. 
His early professional years were characterized by in- 
defatigable industry and unremitting study ; and during 
this period he laid that broad and solid foundation of 
legal knowlege without which all success must necessarily 
be ephemeral. He had the patience to study and to 
wait. He had confidence in himself, and faith in the ulti- 
mate arbitrament of the people. 

After weary years of waiting, success came at last — as 
it must always come to true merit. When it did come — 
and, perhaps, it came as soon as it was deserved — he 
was prepared to meet its imperious demands. 

Mr. Chambers had a mind most admirably adapted to 
the law. It was acute, logical, and comprehensive, of 
quick perception, with strong powers of discrimination, 
and possessed of rare ability to grasp and hold the true 
points of a case. 

Added to these natural abilities was the discipline 
of a thorough education, supplemented by a varied fund 
of knowledge acquired by extensive reading, which 



l8 A MEMOIR OF GEORGE CHAMBERS, LL.D. 

ranged far beyond the confines of the literature of his 
profession. 

Besides all this, he possessed, in a most eminent de- 
gree, that crowning ornament of all mental stature, good 
common sense — without which the most shining talents 
avail but little. 

It is not surprising, therefore, that when the opportune 
time came that was to give him the ear of the court, that 
he should attract attention. From this time his success 
was assured, and his progress to the head of the bar 
steady and unvarying. This ascendancy he easily main- 
tained during his entire subsequent professional life. Not 
only was he the acknowledged chief of his own bar, but 
also the recognized peer of the first lawyers of the State. 

From 1816 to 1851, when he retired from active prac- 
tice, his business was immense and very lucrative. He 
was retained in every case of importance in his own 
county, and tried many cases in adjoining counties. 

He was well read in all the branches of the law, but he 
especially excelled in the land law of Pennsylvania. He 
had completely mastered it, and could walk with sure and 
unfaltering step through all its intricate paths. 

The practice of his day, while it embraced the usual 
variety of litigated questions, was nevertheless greatly 
engrossed by the trial of ejectments. The titles to many 
of the most valuable farms in Franklin and contiguous 
counties were drawn into litigation, and occupied the 
professional attention and skill of Mr. Chambers. Some 
idea of the extent of his professional labors may be gained 
by examining the reports of cases argued before the Su- 
preme Court, from 4th Binney to 1st Jones. This, how- 
ever, would furnish a very incomplete and inadequate 
record of the volume of his business, for but a compara- 
tively small number of his cases passed in review before 



A MEMOIR OF GEORGE CHAMBERS, LL. D. 19 

that tribunal. His preparation was laborious and thor- 
ough. He trusted nothing to chance, and had no faith 
in lucky accidents, which constitute the sheet-anchor of 
hope to the sluggard. He identified himself with his 
client, and made his cause his own, when it was just. He 
sought for truth by the application of the severest tests 
of logic, and spared no pains in the vindication of the 
rights of his clients. He was always listened to with at- 
tention and respect by the court, and whenever he was 
overruled it was with a respectful dissent. 

The writer of this tribute came to the bar after Mr. 
Chambers had retired from it, and cannot, therefore, 
speak of him, as an advocate, from personal knowledge. 
But tradition, to whose generous care the reputation of 
even the greatest lawyers has too uniformly been com- 
mitted, has fixed his standard high. His diction was pure 
and elegant ; his statement of facts lucid ; his reasoning, 
stripped of all false, and vulgar ornament, was severe and 
logical ; his manner earnest and impressive, and, when 
inspired by some great occasion, his speech could rise 
upon steady pinions into the higher realms of oratory. 

His influence with juries is said to have been immense. 
This arose in part, doubtless, from their unbounded confi- 
dence in his sincerity and integrity ; for he was one of 
those old-fashioned professional gentlemen who stub- 
bornly refused to acknowledge the obligation of the pro- 
fessional ethics which teach that a lawyer must gain his 
client's cause at all hazards and by any means. While 
he was distinguished for unfaltering devotion to his client, 
and an ardent zeal in the protection of his interest, he was 
not less loyal to truth and justice. When he had given 
all his learning and his best efforts to the preparation and 
presentation of his client's case, he felt that he had done 
his whole duty. He would as soon have thought of vio- 



20 A MEMOIR OF GEORGE CHAMBERS, LL.D. 

lating the Decalogue as of achieving victory by artifice 
and sinister means. His professional word was as sacred 
as his oath, and he would have esteemed its intentional 
breach as a personal dishonor. He despised profes- 
sional charlatanism in all its forms, and had he come in 
contact with its modern representative, he would have 
been his abhorrence. 

An influence based upon such high moral worth, 
backed by extensive legal learning, an agreeable and im- 
pressive oratory, and great tact, could not be otherwise 
than potential with both court and jury. If his clients 
were not always successful, they nevertheless felt per- 
fectly sure that he had left nothing undone which ought 
to have been done. 

Washington College, Pennsylvania, manifested its ap- 
preciation of his legal learning and personal worth by con- 
ferring upon him the degree of LL.D. in the year 1861. 
This honor, entirely unsolicited and unexpected by him, 
was a spontaneous mark of distinction, as creditable to 
the distinguished literary institution that bestowed it as it 
was well earned by him who received it. 

Mr. Chambers having determined, in early manhood 
to devote himself with an undivided fidelity to the stud), 
and practice of the law, and to rely upon that profession 
as the chief architect of his fortune and his fame, very 
seldom could be enticed to embark upon the turbulent 
sea of politics. His tastes and habits of thought ran in 
a different channel. Office - seeking and office - holding 
were uncongenial pursuits. The coarse vulgarity and 
bitter wranolino-s of the " hustings" shocked his sensitive 
nature. Indeed, no one could be less of a politician, in 
the popular acceptation of that term. He was as much 
superior to the tricks of the political intriguer as truth is 
superior to falsehood. His native dignity of character, 



A MEMOIR OF GEORGE CHAMBERS, LL.D. 21 

robust integrity, and self-respect, united to an unbounded 
contempt for meanness, lifted him so high above the at- 
mosphere of the demagogue, that he knew absolutely 
nothing of its under-currents of knavery and corruption. 

But in 1832, at the earnest solicitation of his party, he 
became a candidate for Congress in the district composed 
of the counties of Adams and Franklin, and was elected 
by a majority of about eight hundred. He served 
through the Twenty-third Congress, the first session of 
which, commonly called " the Panic Session," commenced 
on the 2d of December, 1833. The most conspicuous 
and distinguished men of the nation were members, and 
the Congress itself the most eventful and exciting that 
had convened since the adoption of the Constitution. 

Mr. Chambers was aeain a candidate and elected to 
the Twenty-fourth Congress by a greatly increased ma- 
jority, and at its termination peremptorily declined a re- 
election. 

During his congressional career he maintained a high 
and respectable position among his compeers. He was 
not a frequent speaker, but his speeches, carefully pre- 
pared, closely confined to the question under discussion, 
and full of information, always commanded the attention 
of the House. 

He served on the Committee on the Expenditures in 
the Department of War, on the Committee on Naval Af- 
fairs, on the Committee on Private Land Claims, and on 
the Committee on Rules and Orders in the House. To the 
discharge of these public duties -he gave the same indus- 
try, care and ability which always characterized the man- 
agement of his affairs in private life. He was a con- 
scientious public servant, zealous for the interests of his 
immediate constituents, and careful about the welfare and 
honor of the nation. 



22 A MEMOIR OF GEORGE CHAMBERS, LL.D. 

In 1836 Mr. Chambers was elected a delegate from 
Franklin County to the Convention to revise and amend 
the Constitution of Pennsylvania. This body convened 
in Harrisburg on the 2d day of May, 1837, and its mem- 
bership was largely composed of the foremost lawyers 
and best intellects of the State. 

Mr. Chambers was appointed a member of the com- 
mittee to which was referred the Fifth Article of the Con- 
stitution, relative to the judiciary — by all odds the most 
important question before the Convention. 

The controversy over this article was bitter and pro- 
tracted between the advocates of a tenure during good 
behavior and the advocates of a short tenure for the 
judges. Mr. Chambers opposed any change in this re- 
spect of the old Constitution, and throughout the various 
phases of the angry discussion stood firmly by his con- 
victions. To the advocacy of the same cause Hopkinson, 
Forward, and Meredith brought their varied learning, 
ponderous logic, and thrilling eloquence. 

Mr. Chambers delivered an elaborate and exhaustive 
speech upon this subject. His impassioned plea for an 
impartial and independent judiciary is as remarkable for 
its beauty as for the correctness of its sentiments. An 
extract from that speech will certainly not be regarded as 
improper or out of place in this sketch. He said: 

"We, sir, are for the independence of the judiciary. 
The independence I want is an independence of any 
undue influence, from any quarter, that will control or 
operate on the minds of the judges, in the impartial ad- 
ministration of justice according to law. It is an inde- 
pendence, not of the people, but an independence for the 
people, and for the protection of the rights of the hum- 
blest citizen of the Commonwealth against oppression or 
injustice, from whatever quarter it may be attempted. 



A MEMOIR OF GEORGE CHAMBERS, LL. D. 2$ 

" It is an independence that will protect the people 
against any encroachments on their rights by the execu- 
tive or legislative departments of the government. 
These powerful departments may usurp and exercise 
powers not committed to them, but forbidden by the con- 
stitutional compact ; and against such the individual citi- 
zen will vainly resist, without the aid and shield of an 
independent judiciary to sustain his rights. 

" It is an independence that will protect the citizen 
against State power. Let the government be the pro- 
secutor ; let official experience be brought in aid of the 
prosecution, yet, with an honest and. independent judi- 
ciary, the most humble citizen, under the panoply of the 
law, with her virtue, with pity and innocence for his 
shield, will pass the ordeal of persecution and trial unhurt 
either in his person, character, or estate. 

"It is an independence that will protect the obscure citi- 
zen against party leaders, popular favorites, or any other 
idol of the day, whose claims may be brought into conflict, 
and which will be weighed in the scales of justice by the 
firm and unwavering hand of an independent judge. 

" It is an independence that will afford the same measure 
of justice to the poor man that it does to the man of 
wealth, let his possessions and interests be as extensive as 
they may ; and it is an independence that administers to 
the stranger in the land the same rule of right and law 
that it does to the most influential family whose posses- 
sions and connections surround the place of trial and 
judgment. 

" It is for such interests, which are those of the people, 
that independent judges are wanted, who will pronounce 
the judgment of the law, regardless of every other con- 
sideration than those arising under the law and the evi- 
dence. Judges whose term of office is limited to a term 
of years, before the expiration of their term will turn 
their eyes to the appointing power, whether that power 
be with the people, the executive, or legislative depart- 
ments. It will have its influence on the feelings and 
judgment of the judge, who is a man, with his infirmities. 
His feelings and his interests will lead him to fear and 



24 A MEMOIR OF GEORGE CHAMBERS, LL.D. 

conciliate that person on whom depends his place, and this 
when he should alone consider the constitution and laws 
by which the rights of all the people are to be decided." 

He closed his speech with the following eloquent pero- 
ration : 

" The subject was one of interest to us all ; it was one 
of interest to the whole people of the Commonwealth, 
who are now on the stage of action ; and of interest to 
those who are to come after us. We are now passing 
not only upon the rights of men of high character, but we 
are also passing upon a constitutional provision which 
may be for good, or it may be for ill, for those present as 
well as those to come. I might be in favor of making 
some salutary changes in the Constitution of our State, 
but I am not for pulling down the pillars of that Consti- 
tution for the purpose of building up some structure of 
my own fancy, or that of the fancy of some one else. It 
was to no purpose that we distributed the powers of the 
government among three departments, if we are not to 
have an independent judiciary department. If you place 
it at the foot of the executive, by making it dependent 
upon him for existence, your distribution of the powers 
of the government is a fallacy, and the independence of 
your judiciary a mere mockery. Sir, the hands that hold 
the scales of justice should be firm ones, and I would do 
nothing to enfeeble them, nor am I willing to deliver 
over the scales of justice to eyes that will look to the ap- 
pointing power, when they ought to look to the Consti- 
tution and the laws." 

The solemn admonitions, wise counsels, and unan- 
swerable arguments of the advocates of a tenure for the 
judiciary during good behavior failed to convince a ma- 
jority of the Convention. Radicalism won the day, and 
the judges ceased to be the arbiters of their own fate. 

Mr. Chambers never changed his views on this sub- 



A MEMOIR OF GEORGE CHAMBERS, LL.D. 2$ 

ject. When the amendment to the Constitution making 
the judiciary elective was pending before the Legislature, 
he was exceedingly anxious that the term of office of the 
judges should be extended to the utmost limit compatible 
with the proposed amendment. He wrote his views fully 
to the member of the House from Franklin County, 
earnestly urging upon him the propriety of this extended 
tenure. He observed an earnest public sentiment clamor- 
ing for the change, and although he was willing that the 
experiment should be made, he yet feared that the inde- 
pendence of the judiciary would be imperilled. While he 
firmly believed that it would be impossible to keep the 
ermine of an elective judiciary wholly unspotted, still he 
hoped that it might escape serious harm by making the 
appeals to the people as unfrequent as might be. 

On the 12th of April, 1851, Governor Johnston com- 
missioned Mr. Chambers as a Justice of the Supreme 
Court, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Judge 
Burnside. He sat upon the Bench from this time until 
the first Monday of the following December, when, under 
the amended Constitution, the new judges received their 
commissions. He was nominated by the Whig State 
Convention in 1851 for this office, but was defeated along 
with his colleagues on the same ticket, having received, 
however, from the voters of his native county, and of the 
adjoining counties, a very complimentary endorsement. 

During the time Mr. Chambers was a member of the 
Supreme Court, he prepared and delivered quite a number 
of opinions, written in a perspicuous and agreeable style, 
and exhibiting his usual exhaustive research and exten- 
sive legal knowledge. Some of these opinions are inter- 
esting to the professional reader, and can be found in the 
fourth volume of Harris's State Reports. The most 
notable among them are the cases of Baxby v. Linah, in 



26 A MEMOIR OF GEORGE CHAMBERS, LL. D. 

which the effect of a judgment of a court of a sister State 
in the tribunals of this State is elaborately discussed ; 
Louden v. Blythe, involving the question of the conclu- 
siveness of a magistrate's certificate of the acknowledg- 
ment by femes covert of deeds and mortgages, and Wilt 
against Snyder, in which the doctrine of negotiable paper 
is learnedly examined. 

Mr. Chambers never occupied any other public official 
stations ; but in private life he held many places of trust 
and responsibility, giving to the faithful discharge of the 
duties they imposed upon him his best services, and to 
all enterprises for the advancement of the public good, 
and the promotion of education and morality, liberally of 
his substance. 

In 1 814 he was elected a Manager of the Chambers- 
burg Turnpike Road Company, and afterwards its Presi- 
dent, which positions he filled for half a century. 

In the same year he was actively employed in organ- 
izing and establishing the Franklin County Bible Society, 
was elected one of its officers, and served as such for 
many years. 

He was always a steadfast and consistent friend of the 
cause of temperance. By precept, by example, and by 
strong and eloquent advocacy of its principles, he strove 
to correct public sentiment on this subject, and to arouse 
it to a proper appreciation of the horrors of intemper- 
ance. He assisted in the organization of a number of 
societies throughout the county, to which he gave freely 
such pecuniary aid as they required, and before which he 
was a frequent speaker. The seed which he thus so dili- 
gently planted ripened into a rich harvest of blessed re- 
sults, the influence of which remains until this day. 

In 181 5 Mr. Chambers was elected a Trustee of the 
Chambersburg Academy, and afterwards President of the 



A MEMOIR OF GEORGE CHAMBERS, LL.D. 2J 

Board, resigning the trust after a tenure of forty-five 
years, because of the increasing infirmities of age. 

In the same year he was chosen one of the Trustees 
of the Presbyterian Church of Chambersburg, and in due 
time became President of the Board, from which he re- 
tired in July, 1864. 

He was also for many years a Director of the Bank of 
Chambersburg, in 1836 was chosen its President, and 
annually reelected until pressing business engagements 
compelled him to decline re-election. 

The mention of these unostentatious but useful and 
responsible employments is not improper here, for it 
serves to illustrate how Mr. Chambers was esteemed in 
the community where he passed his entire life. 

At the time of his death he was the largest land-owner 
in Franklin County. He had a passion for agriculture, 
studied it as a science, and gave much of his leisure to 
the direction of its practical operations. His knowledge 
of soils, and of the fertilizers best adapted to them, was 
extensive and accurate. His familiarity with the bounda- 
ries of his farms, and the varieties of timber-trees grow- 
ing upon them, and exactly upon what part of the land 
they could be found, was so remarkable as to astonish his 
tenants frequently, and to put them at fault. He was 
not churlish in imparting all his knowledge about agri- 
cultural affairs to his neighbors, and he was ever ready 
at his own expense to lead the van in every experiment 
or enterprise which gave a reasonable promise of in- 
creasing the knowledge or lightening the labors of the 
farmer. For the purpose of exciting a generous emula- 
tion among the farmers, and facilitating their opportu- 
nities for gaining increased knowledge of their business, 
— although at quite an advanced age, — he expended 
much time and labor in organizing and putting into sue- 



28 A MEMOIR OF GEORGE CHAMBERS, LL.D. 

cessful operation the first agricultural society of Frank- 
lin County, which he served as president for one year. 

Mr. Chambers was proud of his native State, and a 
devout worshipper of the race whose blood flowed in his 
veins. These sentiments were deepened and strength- 
ened by a diligent study of provincial history and an ex- 
tensive personal acquaintance with the illustrious men 
whose lives adorned the first years of the Common- 
wealth. The knowledge which he thus acquired brought 
to him the sting of disappointment ; for his sense of jus- 
tice was wounded by the almost contemptuous historical 
treatment of the claims and deeds of that race which, 
more than all others, had helped to lay the broad founda- 
tions of State prosperity, to build churches and school- 
houses, and to advance everywhere the sacred standard 
of religious liberty, which had loved freedom and hated 
the king, and had carried with it into every quarter the 
blessings of civilization, and the hallowed influences of 
the Gospel. 

The spirit of his ancestry called him to the vindication 
of their race, and he determined — although the sand of 
his time-glass was running low — to round off, and crown 
the industry of a long life by a labor of love. 

During the brief periods of leisure, which the almost 
constant demands of his business only occasionally 
afforded him, he prepared and had published, in 1856, 
a volume, which, with characteristic modesty, he entitled, 
U A Tribute to the Principles, Virtues, Habits, and Public 
Usefulness of the Irish and Scotch Early Settlers of Penn- 
sylvania ; by a Descendant." 

This production discloses such a thorough knowledge 
of the subject, and withal breathes so great a filial rever- 
ence for those whose merits it commemorates, that it will 
doubtless long be read with increasing interest by their 
descendants. 



A MEMOIR OF GEORGE CHAMBERS, LL.D. 29 

The following closing paragraphs will furnish a fair 
sample of the style and sentiments which characterize the 
whole book. Speaking of the Scotch-Irish settlers, the 
author says : 

" They located themselves beside the descendants of 
the Puritans, as well as others of German origin. The 
communities thus formed have been harmonious, respect- 
able, and influential, giving tone to public morals, political 
sentiment, social advantages, elevated education, and reli- 
gious organizations. The descendants of the Irish and 
Scotch, in whichever district they may have cast their lot 
and fixed their stakes, are among the most prominent, 
virtuous, religious, active, useful, industrious, and enter- 
prising of the community. They have proved by their 
faith and works that they are not of ignoble blood and 
descent, nor below any class of the citizens of this land 
with whom they may be compared, in their principles, vir- 
tuous habits, and public usefulness, or in those of their 
ancestors. 

" Though Pennsylvania has not elevated one of her 
own sons to the Presidency of the United States, yet the 
Scotch-Irish race of the Union has furnished to that Pres- 
idency three of our Presidents and a majority of the 
United States Senators since the organization of the 
Federal Government. They have also from their ranks, 
in Pennsylvania, given to our Commonwealth five of her 
Governors, and a majority of the men who have com- 
posed and who still compose the Supreme and other 
courts of the State. 

" In all stations under the National or State grovern- 
ments, civil or military, the men of this race have gener- 
ally been prominent, eminent, patriotic and faithful ; wise, 
judicious, and deliberate in council ; resolute, unwaver- 
ing and inflexible in the discharge of duty, and when 
called by their country to face the public enemy in arms, 
there were none more brave, fearless, and intrepid. 

" It is hoped that the compilers of Pennsylvania history 
hereafter, in their review of the progress of improvement 



30 A MEMOIR OF GEORGE CHAMBERS, LL.D. 

in our great Commonwealth, in education, arts, science, 
and manufactures, in the promotion of elevated religious 
and Christian influence, in the establishment of seminaries 
of learning, and in the construction of great inland im- 
provements for travel and transportation, will inquire into 
the authors and founders of these institutions, influences, 
and improvements, investigate their pretensions, and do 
justice at least to their merits and memory. Let them 
not presume to give point to a paragraph by heaping 
on a whole race some stale and unjust reproach from a 
bygone calumniator and enemy. * 

" It behooves the men of Pennsylvania, who have State 
pride and emulation, and appreciate her prosperity and 
greatness, as well as the labors, services, and sacrifices 
of ancestors who did so much to lay the foundations of 
that prosperity and greatness, to stand by her own men, 
and manifest for their memory the great reverence which 
they so eminently deserve." 

These natural tastes and congenial studies combined 
to make Mr. Chambers an ardent friend of the Historical 
Society of Pennsylvania, and to impress him with the im- 
portance of the noble work, for the sake of truth, which 
it is now performing. The value of his efforts for the 
elucidation of the early history of the Province and State, 
and his moral worth, were generously recognized by the 
Society in his selection to be one of its vice-presidents, 
which honorable office he held at the time of his decease. 

By the request of the Society, Mr. Chambers under- 
took the preparation of an extended history of a consid- 
erable portion of the State of Pennsylvania, including the 
Cumberland Valley. It was also intended to embrace a 
compilation and analysis of the various laws and usages 
governing the acquisition of titles to land in the State, to 
be supplemented by an annotation of the changes caused 
therein by statutory law, and the decisions of the courts 
from time to time. 



A MEMOIR OF GEORGE CHAMBERS, LL. D, 31 

The manuscript of this work, which had cost much re- 
search and labor, was finished and ready for the press on 
the 30th of July, 1864, when the Rebels, under General 
McCausland, made their cruel foray into Chambersburg, 
to give the doomed town over to its baptism of fire. 

It perished in the conflagration of that fearful day — 
which still haunts, and ever will, the memory of those 
who witnessed it, like the hideous spectre of a dream. 
Along with that manuscript perished also a biographical 
sketch, which was almost ready for publication, of Dr. John 
McDowell, a native of Franklin County, distinguished for 
his learning, usefulness, and devoted piety. 

Mr. Chambers lost heavily in property by the burning 
of Chambersburg. The large stone dwelling-house built 
by his father in 1787, the house which he had himself 
erected in 181 2, and in which he had lived with his family 
since 181 3, together with four other houses, were totally 
destroyed. 

But this pecuniary loss caused him, comparatively, but 
little regret. His private papers, an- extensive corre- 
spondence, valuable manuscripts, hallowed relics of the 
loved and lost ones, many cherished mementoes of 
friendship, his books so familiar and so prized from con- 
stant study and use, the old-fashioned stately furniture, 
and the precious heirlooms that had come down to him 
from his ancestry, all shared the same common ruin. 
Such things are incapable, of monetary valuation, and their 
loss was irreparable. In one half hour the red hand of fire 
had ruthlessly severed all the links that bound him to his 
former life, and thenceforth he walked to the verge of his 
time isolated and disassociated from the past. This 
calamity he keenly felt, although he nerved himself 
against its depressing influences with his characteristic 
cheerfulness and fortitude. 



32 A MEMOIR OF GEORGE CHAMBERS, LL.D. 

To this cause, also, must be attributed the great lack 
of present materials for a proper biographical sketch of 
Mr. Chambers, and the difficulties and discouragements 
which the writer of this tribute has encountered in its 
preparation. No one can be more conscious than he 
how unworthy this memoir is of the subject and this 
august presence. 

Mr. Chambers was deeply moved by the news of the 
bombardment of Fort Sumter. When he heard the 
startling intelligence, although in infirm health, it seemed 
to stir a fever in his blood. He urpfed the calling of the 
citizens of Chambersburg together immediately, to take 
proper measures for assisting in the defence of the Gov- 
ernment. He presided at the meeting, and made a 
touching and eloquent speech, which was responded to 
on the spot by the enlistment of a full company for the 
three months' service. A few years before he had pre- 
sented a flag to a military company called in his honor 
The Chambers Infantry. This organization formed the 
nucleus of the company now enlisted for the stern duties 
of war, and was among the first in the State to report for 
service at the headquarters at Harrisburg. From that 
hour, until the last Confederate soldier laid down his 
arms, Mr. Chambers stood steadfastly by the Union. 
The darkest hours of the war found him always the same 
unflinching supporter of the Government, the same 
staunch patriot, the same irreconcilable opponent of all 
compromise with treason, and the same defiant and im- 
placable foe of traitors. 

In his tribute to the early Irish and Scotch settlers of 
Pennsylvania Mr. Chambers put on record his strong 
condemnation of all insurrectionary attempts against the 
Government in the following forcible language : 



A MEMOIR OF GEORGE CHAMBERS, LL.D. 33 

" It is a grave and important question, to be settled by 
politicians and statesmen in time of tranquillity, whether 
clemency to offenders against the authority of the laws and 
the existence of society and government has not, in the ad- 
ministration of the Federal Government, been carried too 
far for the peace and safety of the public as well as for the 
authority of the laws. All those who in times past have 
raised their arms in violence, or conspired to resist by force 
the laws of the Government and its constituted authorities, 
have been allowed to escape the penalties of the law for 
their crimes, through executive clemency and pardon. 
The safety and permanence of the Republic forbid that an 
ill-judged benevolence shall permit such high crimes to 
be perpetrated with impunity. The necessity of example 
for such offenders is as requisite as it is for the lesser 
crimes against the public peace and security; and if the 
law, in the hands of a faithful chief magistrate, be carried 
into execution against insurgents and traitors, the public 
peace will more rarely be violated by unlawful assem- 
blies, and the existence of society and government not be 
endangered by unlawful organized combinations of men, 
with their leaders, in resistance. With a known measure 
of punishment before them, to be executed upon all such 
offenders, without fear or favor, men will be more sub- 
missive to the constituted authorities and laws passed in 
conformity to the Constitution, and abstain from a resist- 
ance that will be subdued, while the offenders receive the 
punishment inflicted by the law. Partisans and dema- 
gogues will be as little disposed then to threaten rebel- 
lion, nullification, and dissension, as they would be to 
boast in public assemblies of their purpose to murder 
their neighbors, burn their houses, or pick their pockets. 

"The Western insurrection, and other unlawful combi- 
nations in Pennsylvania to oppose the laws of the Union, 
since its formation, are a slur on its citizens and Govern- 
ment. If our great Commonweath is to maintain the po- 
sition in the Union which she ought to have in regard to 
her population and territory, it will be necessary in all 
time to come to manifest her regard for it by repressing, 
with her own power and authority, every appearance 



34 A MEMOIR OF GEORGE CHAMBERS, LL.D. 

among her citizens of organized combination to resist by 
violence and numbers the execution of the laws of the 
National and State governments. 

"Let the weight of law and public authority be laid 
upon it in its inception, and let a well-directed public sen- 
timent sustain the public officers in the faithful dis- 
charge of their duty, without regard to party or political 
associations and names. By so doing the riotous insur- 
gent, the wicked traitor, and turbulent demagogue will 
learn that their criminal measures and designs against 
the government of the people and its free institutions 
will be as futile as they are infamous." 

It must be observed that these views were expressed 
several years before the black clouds of discontent in the 
South had broken in a deluge of blood upon the country. 
Regarded, therefore, as the abstract opinion of a patriot 
and good citizen upon the heinousness of the crime of 
rebellion, and the imperative duty of the Government to 
punish it, they must, of necessity, commend themselves 
as eminently proper and just, even to those whose hearts 
are now most anxiously panting after reconciliation, and 
who are most willing " to clasp hands across the bloody 
chasm of war." 

These sentiments have a fitting place in this memoir, 
because they serve to illustrate the character of their 
author. But to infer from them that Mr. Chambers fa- 
vored extreme penalties against the insurgents, after 
they had thrown down their arms and acknowledged the 
authority of the Government, would be doing cruel in- 
justice to his kindly nature, and casting an undue asper- 
sion upon the soundness of his judgment. Were he alive 
to-day, we feel very sure that he would be an earnest 
advocate of liberal amnesty. 

On the 6th day of March, 1810, Mr. Chambers married 
Alice A. Lyon, of Carlisle, daughter of William Lyon, 



A MEMOIR OF GEORGE CHAMBERS, LL. D. 35 

Esq., Prothonotary and Clerk of the courts of Cum- 
berland County, — a lady whose rare virtues and accom- 
plishments cheered and solaced thirty-eight years of his 
life. Two sons and two daughters, the fruits of this mar- 
riage, still survive, and are residents of Chambersburg. 

Mr. Chambers was of medium stature, of slender 
frame, and delicate constitution. He was indebted for 
the physical strength which enabled him to sustain for so 
many years the burden of excessive professional labor, 
solely to his abstemious life, regular habits, and almost 
daily exercise upon horseback. 

His classical training was excellent, and his knowledge 
of the Roman authors quite extensive. He was a well- 
read man, and familiar with the best literature of his own 
and past times, — an acquaintance which he sedulously cul- 
tivated until a late period of his life. His library was 
large and well selected, and open at all times to the de- 
serving, however humble might be their station. 

Mr. Chambers cared for none of the arts of popularity. 
He was not one "to split the ears of the groundlings." 
He had no ambition at all for this. His bearing was dig- 
nified and his manners reserved. With the world he 
doubtless was accredited a cold and proud man; but to 
those who were admitted to the privileges of an intimate 
acquaintance, he was a sociable, kind, courteous, and affa- 
ble gentleman, and a genial and captivating companion. 
Having acquired a varied fund of knowledge from books, 
as well as from a close and intelligent observation of 
men, his conversation was exceedingly entertaining and 
instructive. His memory, going back into the last cen- 
tury, had garnered up many interesting reminiscences of 
the events of that age, and personal recollections of its 
illustrious men ; and when in the unrestrained freedom 
of social intercourse he opened its treasures, they fur- 

3 



36 A MEMOIR OF GEORGE CHAMBERS, LL. D. 

nished, indeed, a rare intellectual entertainment to his 
charmed auditors. But so great was the elevation of his 
character and the purity of his nature, so intense his self- 
respect, that I venture to assert that never at any time, 
under the temptations of the most unreserved conversa- 
tion, did he utter a word or sentiment that might not with 
perfect propriety have been repeated in the most refined 
society. 

He was a sincere and steadfast friend, a kind neighbor, 
and a good and useful citizen. His advice to all who 
sought it — and they were many, in every walk of life — 
proved him to be a willing, judicious, and sympathizing 
counsellor. 

In the management of his private affairs he was scrupu- 
lously honest and punctual. He required all that was his 
own, and paid to the uttermost farthing that which was an- 
other's. He scorned alike the pusillanimity which would 
defraud one's self, and the meanness which would rob 
another. But withal he was a generous man. His house 
was the abode of a most liberal hospitality. His benevo- 
lence was large and catholic, manifesting itself in fre- 
quent and liberal contributions for the advancement of 
education and religion. He was kind to the poor and 
deserving, and more than one child of poverty received a 
good education at his expense. But he did not publish 
his charities on the streets, nor give his alms before men. 
He reverently obeyed in this respect the scriptural in- 
junction, " Let not thy left hand know what thy right hand 
doe thy 

It would be improper for us, by dwelling longer on his, 
domestic virtues, to invade the sanctity of his home, where 
they grew into such eminent development. We know 
that he was a good husband, a devoted father, and an 
exemplar to his household worthy of the closest imitation. 



A MEMOIR OF GEORGE CHAMBERS, LL.D. 37 

Mr. Chambers was a devout man from his youth, and 
a sincere and unfaltering believer in the cardinal doc- 
trines of the Christian religion. From childhood he was 
carefully trained in the tenets of the Westminster Con- 
fession and the Shorter Catechism. He drank in a rev- 
erence for the Sabbath-day with his mother's milk, which 
so engrafted itself into his being that no earthly induce- 
ment could tempt him to profane it. In 1842 he made a 
public profession of his faith, and was received into the 
communion of the Presbyterian Church at Chambersburg. 
Thenceforth religion grew from a mere sentiment, or a 
cold intellectual belief, into the guiding principle of his 
life. It influenced his conduct towards others and gov- 
erned his own heart. It kept him untainted from 
the world in prosperity, and solaced him in adversity. 
And when the twilight of his last days began to descend 
upon him, his pathway was illumined by the light of the 
Gospel, and he walked down to the dark river with a firm 
step, unclouded by doubts or fears, and with the eye of 
faith steadily fixed upon the Star of Bethlehem. 

We have now performed our promise to the Society to 
submit a memoir of Mr. Chambers. We have not at- 
tempted a panegyric, or written his eulogy. It would be 
eminently out of place for us to do that. We have at- 
tempted to present him as he appeared to those among 
whom he spent his life and who knew him best. He 
died on the 25th of March, 1866, in his eighty-first year, 
bequeathing to his children the heritage of an unspotted 
name, to posterity an enduring reputation, earned by a 
life full of good and virtuous deeds, and to the aspiring 
and ambitious youth an example worthy of the highest 
emulation. 



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